


i don’t look for trouble (trouble looks for me)

by jendeukie



Category: BLACKPINK (Band)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe - Road Trip, F/F, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Kleptomania, Minor Character Death, Murder, OT4, Prostitution, Recreational Drug Use, Smoking, Suicide Attempt, dont let the tags scare you, its soft
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-16
Updated: 2018-03-25
Packaged: 2019-03-19 06:37:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13698930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jendeukie/pseuds/jendeukie
Summary: “You’re a good girl and you ended up on a road trip with a suicidal addict, a kleptomaniac whore and a chainsmoker, insomniac murderer,” Jennie laughs.or: Lisa goes on a road trip with three strangers and gets more than she bargained for.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve been working on this for quite a while now, so I thought it was time to post it.
> 
> It was inspired by the 365 fresh MV by triple h.
> 
> english is not my first language so be kind.
> 
> this is only the prologue so it’s pretty short, but i’ve already planned the remaining chapters and they’re going to be waaay longer, dw.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the start of the adventure.

Lisa sighs for the nth time as she turns over in her bed. The blankets are suffocating her, so she kicks them off. She can faintly hear some music in the background, and she has half a mind to tell her brother to kindly turn it down a bit, but she can’t be bothered to. And it’s not like it actually bothers her that much, she’s just bored out of her mind.

She’s been scrolling on her social media for the past few hours, but all she can see is her friends having fun in foreign countries, while she’s at home doing absolutely nothing.

She starts to think that maybe she should have accepted her parents’ offer to go back to Thailand with them, at least she would have been around familiar faces and not alone.

“Joonki!” she yells, “turn that shit down!”

“Stop swearing, you savage!” is her younger brother’s answer.

“Is that how you talk to all of your seniors?” she retorts.

“Fuck off!” he yells back.

“Who’s the savage now?” Lisa smirks.

Her brother doesn’t answer, but he does turn down the music, so Lisa counts that as a win. She takes her phone back in hand and refreshes her social media. Everything is still the same.

She decides to take a cold shower, Korea’s hot weather is really getting to her, and she heads to the bathroom. Their house isn’t the biggest, but at least she has a bathroom all for herself in her room, so she can’t exactly complain.

She takes off her pajamas and enters the shower. The cold water makes her shiver at first, but then she gets used of it and everything is okay.

When she’s done standing under the water, she exits the shower. She gets dressed in a sleeveless shirt and a pair of shorts, and decides on a whim to head out to get an ice-cream.

“I’m going out,” she yells to Joonki.

“Whatever,” he replies.

There’s a 7/11 not too far from home, so she decides to go there. The streets are empty and quiet, and Lisa has never seen Seoul like this. It’s kind of sad.

What really is sad is her life right now. School has ended, her last year of high school was a tough one, but she managed to survive it and even with good grades, or at least good enough to enter a decent university. No one is at the dance studio either, so she can’t exactly show up there, and all of her friends are gone to enjoy their last free summer before university begins.

On one hand, Lisa can’t wait for university to start, she’s that bored of staying at home doing nothing, on the other she is kind of scared. What will university life be like? She’s also moving out of her house and going to live alone. How will that be? Will she be able to survive?

But it’s still too soon to be thinking about that, it’s still the start of June and she has three full months ahead of her to enjoy. She was supposed to go on a trip to Japan with Sejeong, her best friend, but they ended up being too swamped with school work to organise it and Sejeong has left to go to Busan with her family.

Her parents had asked her and Joonki to go back to Thailand with them to see some family, but Lisa had foolishly told them no. So now she’s stuck in Seoul, alone apart from her annoying younger brother, with nothing to do.

When she arrives at the convenience store, she smiles at the old lady behind the counter, who knows her too well by now.

“Lisa? Is that you, honey?” Mrs. Park asks.

Lisa nods with a smile, “It’s me, Mrs. Park, I’m here to get some ice-cream.”

“Well, you know where they are,” Mrs. Park rebuts, “how is your summer going, honey?”

“It’s kind of boring,” Lisa shrugs as she heads to the ice-cream section, “what about you?”

“My son has come to visit,” the old lady smiles, “so we’re catching up with him. He’s brought his wife and newborn daughter with him.”

“That must be lovely,” Lisa comments as she grabs a regular strawberry popsicle.

“Is that all?” Mrs. Park asks as Lisa reaches the counter with the popsicle in hand.

Lisa nods and Mrs. Park tells her the cost. Lisa pays, says goodbye to Mrs. Park and settles on one of the chairs outside the convenience store.

She looks around, when a van stops in front of her. It’s white, with red writings on it. The biggest one reads: ‘Jennie’s ice-cream’, and below it are other things written, like what type of ice-creams this Jennie person sells.

Out of the van comes a black figure. It’s a girl. She has long, brown hair that reach the middle of her stomach, striking blue eyes and pink lips. She’s dressed all in black: black shorts, a black crop-top and a hoodie with the hood pulled on.

Lisa wonders what kind of people wear hoodies in summer, as she can’t stop staring at the newcomer.

Lisa watches as she enters the 7/11 and asks Mrs. Park something. Mrs. Park leaves the counter to go look for whatever the girl asked, and in that moment the girl reaches over the counter to grab three packs of red Marlboro and puts them in her pockets.

Mrs. Park, who has noticed nothing, comes back, shaking her head and probably telling the girl that they don’t have what she was looking for. The girl smiles and enters the shop.

“That was wrong, what you did in there.”

Lisa sometimes wishes she her brain-mouth filter worked, or that it existed at least, but no, she’s stuck blurting out every single thought that passes in her head.

The girl turns around and stares Lisa down, from head to toe, then she shrugs, “Go report me, then.”

But Lisa can’t seem to do have the strength to do that.

“I won’t,” she says, “just don’t do it again. Especially not to Mrs. Park, she’s a nice one.”

“I won’t then, poor Mrs. Park,” the girl laughs, and Lisa is starting to think that she’s mocking her.

“You do know that there are security cameras in there, right?”

Lisa doesn’t know why she keeps trying to make conversation with the other, but there’s just something about her. Lisa can’t take her eyes away.

The girl shrugs, “I’ll be gone by the morning, they’ll never find me.”

“Where will you be?” Lisa asks, “are you travelling?”

“Kind of,” the girl sits on the chair in front of Lisa and takes a cigarette out of one of the packets, “why are you so interested?”

Lisa shrugs, “I don’t have anything better to do.”

The girl smiles, and it look sweet, oh, if only Lisa knew.

“You seem like a good girl,” the girl tells her, “piece of advice for you: don’t get involved with people like me.”

“Who says I’m getting involved?” Lisa asks.

“You can’t seem to stop asking me questions,” the girl replies, blowing out a cloud of smoke which makes Lisa cough.

“So, where are you going this summer?” Lisa asks.

“I’m going on a road-trip with some friends,” the girls shrugs, “you?”

“I’m doing nothing,” Lisa is embarrassed to say, “a road trip? That’s cool. Are they your friends from school?”

“No,” the girl smirks, “I’ve picked one of them up in Yeoncheon and the other in Dongducheon.”

“You did what?” Lisa asks, shocked.

The girl laughs, “We just met. They wanted to get away and I took them with me, why? You wanna come too? There’s room for four.”

“No, of course not!” Lisa exclaims.. but maybe. She isn’t doing anything interesting this summer, and she wants one last adventure before venturing in the boring world of universities and internships and, later, jobs.

And the girl doesn’t seem too bad.. apart from the fact that Lisa saw her steal three packs of cigarettes.

“You don’t seem too sure about that,” the girl smirks.

And there’s just something about her smirk, that makes Lisa want to challenge her, just to wipe it off her pretty face.

“What if I do want to come?” Lisa asks.

“Then you’re welcome, but you gotta let me know by the time I finish this cigarette,” the girl smiles, pointing to the almost completely smoked cigarette.

“I’ll come,” Lisa says, decided, “that’s my final answer.”

The girl chuckles, “Cute. Okay, let’s go.”

“Can we stop to my house first?” Lisa asks, “I have to take some stuff.. and tell my brother as well.”

“Just don’t tell him who I am and it’s fine,” the girl shrugs, putting out her cigarette on the table and throwing it on the floor.

“How could I when I don’t even know who you are?” Lisa rebuts.

The girl smiles, “Oh, right, my name is Jennie.”

Lisa shakes her hand quickly, “I’m Lisa.”

Just what the hell has Lisa gotten herself into.

 

The interior of the van looks way worse than the exterior. 

There are clothes everywhere, especially on the floor, so many of them that in some parts said floor can’t even be seen.

There are cigarette butts everywhere, and the whole place smells like smoke and another disgusting smell Lisa can’t recognise.

Laying on the floor, over the biggest pile of clothes, there’s a girl; she has dark red hair and is wearing a yellow dress, and is singing softly along the song on the radio, some bubblegum pop song sang by female voices.

“Finally, Jen,” a voice from the passenger seat exclaims, “we thought you got busted! We were just about to drive away and leave you here.”

The girl who’s just spoken turns around and glares at Lisa, before realising that Lisa isn’t Jennie, and her face morphs into a confused expression.

“Who the fuck are you?”

The girl is just as pretty as the other two. With straight, dark brown hair and chocolate eyes. She’s wearing a grey top and some jeans shorts, from what Lisa can see.

“Be nice, Chae. I’ve picked up a new stray,” Jennie says, sitting on her driver seat, “she’s Lisa and she’ll come with us.”

“Lisa,” red-hair whisper to herself, “that’s a cute name.”

“Thanks?” Lisa rebuts, “and you are?”

The girl doesn’t even look at her, as she smiles, “Jichu,” she chuckles, “it’s nice to meet you.”

Jichu? That’s an.. unusual name.

“Don’t listen to her, her name is Jisoo,” Jennie says as she starts driving.

“And you’re.. Chae? It’s nice to meet you,” Lisa smiles.

“It’s Chaeyoung,” Chaeyoung corrects her with an annoyed tone.

“Hey, where do you live?” Jennie asks.

Lisa tells her the way to her house, just two blocks to the right, and Jennie turns on the music louder as she chews on a chewing gum that brown-hair passes her.

When they reach Lisa’s house, Jennie stops the van and comes out of it, “You two stay in here!” Jennie exclaims before exiting the van, “Chae, make sure that Jisoo doesn’t wander off. We don’t want a repeat of what happened in Oijongbu.”

Lisa is almost tempted to ask what happened in Oijongbu, but in the end she decides against it. 

“Yes, Ma’am,” Chaeyoung says in a bored tone, bringing her right hand to her forehead, imitating a soldier.

Lisa and Jennie head into Lisa’s house and Lisa brings her to her room. Jennie takes a look at the pastel walls and chuckles, “Cute.”

“What should I take with me?” Lisa asks.

“Pack lightly,” Jennie advises her.

Lisa takes a duffel bag from under her bed and some clothes from her wardrobe, mainly shorts and t-shirts. She puts them inside in a hurry, then goes to the bathroom and grabs her toothbrush and other necessities. 

“Are you ready?” Jennie asks.

“Wait, let me talk to my brother first,” Lisa says.

She enters her brother’s room, and he lets out a yell, “Didn’t they teach you how to knock? I could have been.. doing something important.”

“What, like jerking off?” Lisa teases him.

“Shut up, what do you want?” Joonki asks.

“Sejeong invited me to go to Busan with her, so I’m going to take the train now,” she lies, “I’ll let you know when I’ll be back.”

“Okay,” her brother shrugs, “stay safe, I guess.”

Safe is the completely opposite of what Lisa is being right now. But she doesn’t care, she thinks as she stares at Jennie’s determined face.

“Are you ready for the adventure of your life?” Jennie asks, back in the driver seat as Lisa sits on the seat behind her.

Lisa just smiles, meeting her gaze through the rear view mirror.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> leave kudos and comments!
> 
> follow me on twitter @ jendeukiesss for sneak peeks!


	2. June

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the first month of the road trip and all about jisoo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i’m so so so so sorry for not updating this sooner, i was busy with school, broke my laptop and went on a trip, but hopefully this 12k chapter makes up for it?
> 
> that said, i hope you all enjoy.

The first hours have been pretty boring, so far.

Jennie keeps driving, window half-open and radio turned low, as she chainsmokes.

Chaeyoung doesn’t say a word, apart from complaining sometimes about how Jennie is going too slow and how it would be different if she was the one driving.

Jisoo keeps laying on the floor, singing along to the radio and chuckling to herself.

“So.. where’s our next stop? Anyang?” Lisa asks, bored out of her mind.

“We’re not going to Anyang,” Chaeyoung replies immediately.

“Why not?” Lisa asks, surprised.

“We’re not going back to fucking Anyang,” Jennie insists, and that’s that.

“Then where are we going?” Lisa asks.

“Are you always this annoying?” Chaeyoung sighs, “we’re going to stop tonight and where we are, we are.”

“Okay..” Lisa murmurs.

Her first attempt at conversation shot down. She tries again a few hours later.

“So.. do you actually sell ice-creams?” she tries this time.

This time, the three girls burst out laughing. They keep laughing histerically, and Lisa doesn’t understand what she did wrong. The van does say: ‘Jennie’s ice cream’.

“No,” Jisoo replies, “but sometimes we sell weed.”

“You do what?” Lisa chokes on air.

The girls resume laughing.

“Just sometimes, when we’re out of money,” Jisoo shrugs, “don’t worry about it.”

“Having second thoughts about coming with us?” Jennie teases her.

“No, of course not,” Lisa replies, determined to prove her wrong.

Lisa is having second thoughts. She should have just stayed at home, boring herself with her brother. Gosh, why the hell did she even agree? She saw Jennie steal cigarettes, these girls are criminals!

But she tries to convince herself that everything is okay. So what if they sometimes sell weed? It’s not like it’s a hard drug, everyone has tried weed before. Well, Lisa didn’t, but some of her friends did.

She can’t help but think about what Jennie told her earlier, about how she is a good girl and she shouldn’t get involved with the likes of them. Is that what she meant? That they are part-time drug dealers? Or is there something more that Lisa doesn’t know? And what the fuck happened in Oijongbu?

The three girls that are travelling with her are like mysteries to Lisa right now, but they seem to know each other quite well, even though Jennie told her that she picked them up from the streets, so Lisa has no doubts that by the end of this journey she will get to know them, as well.

Night comes late, as it usually does in summer, and finally a breeze of fresh air comes in by the windows. Jennie claims she’s tired, so they decide to stop at a motel.

“Where are we?” Lisa asks.

“In Pucheon,” Jennie replies.

Lisa grabs her duffel bag, and watches as the others take all of the clothes from the floor and put them in their bags.

They enter the motel and Lisa looks around. The place smells, and it’s painted in a horrible dark green colour. It doesn’t look cozy at all.

“A double,” Jennie says.

The lady at the counter nods, and tells them the price. Jennie takes the exact money out of her purse and gives them to her.

“Wait.. there’s four of us,” Lisa exclaims.

“So?” Chaeyoung asks with her usual bored tone.

“So.. how are we supposed to sleep in a double?” Lisa asks.

“We share,” Jennie shrugs, “I’m sorry if this is not the treatment you wanted, princess, but we’re kind of broke, as you can see.”

Chaeyoung snickers.

Lisa shuts up and feels her cheeks heating up at the pet name. She knows that Jennie’s intention was to mock her, but she can’t help herself.

They go to the second floor and enter their room. It’s even worse than outside. The paint is yellow, but it’s peeling off in some corners of the ceiling, the covers are itchy and the mattress is hard.

“Holy shit!” Jennie exclaims, “this is the best motel since we started the adventure!”

The other two nod in agreement, and Lisa wonders just where they were staying before if this is what they consider the best.

Jennie settles on the bed on the right, and Lisa goes to join her since she’s the one she knows better.

“I’m sharing with Jen,” Chaeyoung says immediately.

“What?”

“I said: I’m sharing with Jennie,” Chaeyoung repeats, “we’ve always shared since we started this trip.”

“This adventure,” Jennie corrects her.

“Whatever,” Chaeyoung replies.

“Well, can’t you swap for once?” Lisa asks.

“No,” Chaeyoung answers, “move along, newbie.”

Chaeyoung, Lisa is starting to think, is either really rude or just hates her, which wouldn’t make sense since they don’t even know each other.

She always has this distant air about her, like no one can reach her, and she always seems bored. But Lisa has seen her joke around with Jennie before, so she starts to think that maybe she is the problem.

Lisa stands up from the bed on the right and goes to sit to the one on the left, where Jisoo is already laying.

“Man,” Jisoo comments, “I need some alcohol.”

“There’s a convenience store down the road,” Lisa offers.

“Come on, let’s go,” Jisoo says, standing up.

“Did it already wear off?” Jennie asks, Jisoo nods and Lisa has no idea what they’re taking about.

Lisa and Jisoo start walking towards the door, then Lisa turns around, “You two aren’t coming?”

Jennie blows out a cloud of smoke and shakes her head, “Buy snacks.. and a detergent.”

“Sure, Cap,” Jisoo says, and they head outside.

Jisoo, Lisa has noticed, is no longer bubbly as she was during the drive. She groans in pain.

“Are you alright?” Lisa asks.

Jisoo nods, “I have a headache that’s killing me.. and my ribs, you know.”

“Your ribs?” Lisa asks.

“They hurt,” is Jisoo’s simple reply, and Lisa decides not to question her further, because she seems quite annoyed.

They enter the convenience store and Lisa smiles and the guy behind the counter, as Jisoo heads straight for the pharmacy section. She picks up some codeine, and some bandages.

“You go grab the snacks,” Jisoo tells her, “let’s meet at the counter in five.”

Lisa nods, and goes to the snacks section. She picks up some chips, pockys and some candies. She turns to look at Jisoo, who has grabbed the detergent and some bottles of soju, and they go to the counter. 

Jisoo takes a look at the snacks Lisa brought, “Nice. These chips are Jennie’s favourites.”

“Do you two know each other well?” Lisa asks.

Jisoo shrugs, “Not really. We just.. know things about each other than we wouldn’t want other people to know.”

Jisoo pays and they head back to the motel.

Jisoo starts drinking immediately as she enters the room, sitting on her bed, back against the headboard. Jennie sighs, passes the detergent to Chaeyoung and starts munching on some chips.

Chaeyoung grabs some of their clothes and heads to the bathroom, to clean them in the bath with the detergent.

“So.. is that how you live?” Lisa asks.

Jennie shrugs, “It’s worked so far.”

“And what will you do when you run out of money?” Lisa wonders.

“We start working,” Jennie answers, “don’t worry, princess, we’ve done this before.”

There she goes again with that nickname that makes Lisa blush uncontrollably.

“Is that nickname gonna stick?” Lisa asks.

“Only is you keep blushing everything I call you it,” Jennie smirks.

Lisa groans and Jisoo lets out a loud laugh. At least it seems like the alcohol made her go back to her usual self. Or at least how Lisa imagines she usually is: cheerful and bubbly.

“Stop flirting, you two,” Chaeyoung sighs from the bathroom, “Jen, come here, we need to talk about the money.”

“Flirting?” Lisa asks, shocked, “we were not..”

“Whatever,” Chaeyoung interrupts her.

“You were totally flirting,” Jisoo snickers.

Lisa gets in bed with Jisoo. The bed is small so they barely fit, and Jisoo puts her arms around Lisa to fit better. Lisa makes a shocked face at that, and Jisoo just laughs at her.

“What?” she asks, “it seems like you’ve never cuddled.”

“I haven’t..” Lisa admits.

“Never?” Jisoo turns to look at her, “then what did you do with your boyfriends?”

“I’ve never had a boyfriend,” Lisa confesses.

“Surely you’ve at least kissed someone,” Jisoo scoffs.

“Oh, yes, I did kiss a guy, but it never went further than that,” Lisa says.

“You’re cute,” Jisoo decides, “If I was into girls I would kiss you, and then go further than that if you know what I mean.”

Lisa blushes at the implications of that, “I’m not.. into girls.”

“Really?” now it’s Jisoo’s turn to be shocked, “by the way you were flirting with Jennie, I thought you were.”

“I’m not,” Lisa repeats.

“Jennie is,” Jisoo says, out of the blue a few minutes later, “be careful, or you’ll fall into her trap sooner or later.”

“Jennie is what?” Lisa asks.

“Into girls,” Jisoo specifies, “I’ve caught her once fooling around with a girl in Oijongbu. While I was in bed resting, she thought it was a good idea to bring a girl here and fuck her in the bed next to mine, the fucker thought I was sleeping.”

Lisa is overwhelmed by the news. Jennie likes girls? So.. maybe Jennie was actually flirting with her? The thought of Jennie fucking someone makes her shiver, for some reason. She starts to imagine things she really shouldn’t be imagining about her adventuring companion. 

And seriously, what the fuck happened in Oijongbu?

“What happened in Oijongbu?” Lisa decides to ask.

“I got into a car accident,” Jisoo says, “I was jaywalking, and a car caught me. Jen and Chae couldn’t bring me to the hospital because we had no money, and we couldn’t take it to the police because I was in the wrong.”

“That.. sucks,” Lisa comments, “and how are you holding up?”

“My ribs still hurt,” Jisoo confesses, “but apart from that I’m fine. It takes more than a car to break me down.”

“I’m sorry this happened to you, but you really shouldn’t have been jaywalking,” Lisa says.

“Okay, Miss I-follow-the-rules, I won’t do it again,” Jisoo snickers.

“Hey,” Lisa says after a while, after Jennie and Chaeyoung have returned from the bathroom and are laying in their bed and the light is off, “if you’re taking painkillers shouldn’t you avoid alcohol.”

The three of them snicker.

“You try to keep Jisoo away from alcohol,” Chaeyoung says.

“Goodnight,” Jennie decides to intervene before Lisa can ask more questions.

“Goodnight,” everyone echoes, and they go to sleep.

 

Lisa has never had a worse night of sleep before, not even on the night before her final high school exam.

The bed was uncomfortable, the covers were so itchy she got rid of them mid-sleep and Jisoo kept kicking her. Lisa woke up on the floor countless times during the night.

That’s also how she found herself that morning, on the cold floor.

“Hey, newbie, wake up,” Chaeyoung says, lightly kicking her on the side.

Lisa groans.

“You drool in your sleep,” Chaeyoung laughs, “what a kid. I don’t know what Jennie sees in you.”

Lisa had the worst night of her life, and Chaeyoung surely isn’t helping right now. It seems like she’s even more rude in the mornings, and Lisa didn’t know it was even possible to be more rude than that.

“Stop teasing her,” Jennie says, from where she’s sitting on the bed, stretching her arms.

“Why are you on the floor?” Jisoo asks, completely unaware.

“You kicked me out of the bed like.. six times,” Lisa says, annoyed.

“Oops,” Jisoo giggles, “sorry.”

Jisoo seems to have decided to have breakfast with the remaining bottle of soju from yesterday night. She chugs it down, as Chaeyoung takes a look at her and sighs.

Jennie is putting on her blue contact lenses, and Lisa steals a glance at her actual eyes. They’re brown, and way more lovely than the blue ones. Maybe that’s why Jennie doesn’t show them.

“Hurry and get up,” Jennie says, “we have plans for today.”

“What plans?” Lisa asks as she gets up.

She starts stretching, first her arms, then legs, bending over to touch her feet. When she comes back up, she turns to look at Jennie, because she still hasn’t answered her question, and finds the other quickly distorting her eyes.

Was Jennie staring at her behind while she was stretching? It seems like it. Lisa blushes and turns to face away from her.

Jisoo’s words echo in Lisa’s mind. Jennie is into girls, surely she isn’t into her? Lisa feels a bit conceited, thinking like that. Just because Jennie is into girls doesn’t mean she’s into every girl she sees.

But then again, why did Jennie even invite her in the first place when she’s so.. different from them? Lisa is sick of having so many questions.

“We’re going to the beach today!” Jennie exclaims.

“To the beach?” Lisa repeats.

“Yes, princess, to the beach,” Jennie snickers, “why? You don’t want to?”

“I didn’t bring a swimsuit,” Lisa confesses.

Jennie laughs, “It’s fine, we didn’t either.”

“So how are we going to..?” Lisa starts to ask.

 

The answer to her question comes an hour later. They’ve checked out of the motel and took the van to go to the nearest beach, after sharing two croissants for breakfast at a nearby bar.

Jennie gets rid of her rainbow coloured shirt and remains in her black, lacy bra and Lisa spends more time than she should have staring at her cleavage.

“See something you like?” Jennie smirks.

“Shut up,” Lisa blushes, “it’s not.. I’m not like that.”

“Geez,” Jennie comments, “calm down, princess, I was just kidding.”

Jennie takes off her shorts as well and her panties match her bra. Jennie’s body looks good: slim but fit and nicely tanned.

Jisoo and Chaeyoung copy their actions and remain in their inderwear. Jisoo is wearing a pair of red panties and has the shirt back on, to not let anyone see the bruises on her ribs, and Chaeyoung has pink panties and bra. Chaeyoung, Lisa notices, is incredibly skinny and her waist in impossibly thin.

Lisa isn’t self-conscious about herself. She knows she has a good-looking body, but the thought of getting rid of her clothes and remaining in her underwear makes her a bit uncomfortable, especially since there are so many people at the beach, including kids and old people, who are staring at them weirdly.

“I’m gonna go in like this,” Lisa admits, gesturing to her still clothed self.

“You’re so boring, newbie,” Chaeyoung complains, and Lisa just ignores her.

“You ready?” Jennie smiles and Lisa nods.

They run into the water screaming because it’s cold and splashing all around them.

Lisa hasn’t been to the beach in a while, the last time her and Sejeong went to Eurwangni Beach and it was a few years ago. Lisa finds that she kind of misses her best friend, especially in a difficult time like this. She wishes she could ask her for advice on what to do, if continuing this adventure or go back home while she still can, but the other would probably just scream at her and her phone is dead somewhere in the van anyway.

“Lisa? You there?”

Lisa turns around to see Jennie staring at her with a calculating gaze, and she nods, “Yeah, sorry, was just thinking about something.”

“Penny for your thoughts?” Jennie asks.

“I just.. miss my best friend,” Lisa admits, and she feels kind of silly for doing that.

“Of course you have a best friend,” Jennie scoffs, “let me guess: she’s exactly like you.”

“We are very similar,” Lisa shrugs.

“Well, where is your friend right now?” Jennie asks, “we can invite her too.”

“She’s in Busan right now, staying with her family,” Lisa explains.

“Well, you could go see her when we arrive in Busan,” Jennie shrugs.

“We’ll go to Busan?” Lisa asks, eyes widening. Busan is on the exact opposite side of the country.

“Of course,” Jennie says, “this is a road trip across the country, after all.”

“An adventure,” Lisa corrects her with a smile.

Jennie burst out laughing, “Sure, an adventure.”

“Hey, what if we ask those guys for a ball?” Jisoo interrupts them, pointing to three guys, who look old enough to be in college, who are currently playing volleyball in the water.

“Sure,” Jennie shrugs, “go, Chae.”

Chaeyoung does as she’s told and reaches the guys. She smiles sweetly and asks, with an impossibly high-pitched tone, if they can kindly lend her their ball.

The guys turn to look at her, and their eyes widen. The guy closer to her blushes, and gives her the ball while stuttering.

Lisa stares at the whole scene in shock. So Chaeyoung can act nice sometimes.

“What a bunch of idiots,” Chaeyoung laughs as she comes back.

“You’re just irresistible to men when you do shit like that,” Jennie comments.

“And to you?” Chaeyoung smirks.

Jennie splashes her, a big smile on her face, “Shut up.”

When Jennie smiles, Lisa has noticed, she turns cute instead of hot. She has a bright smile that shows off her gums, and it’s adorable. Lisa wishes she smiled more often, but so far she has been doing that only when her and Chaeyoung joke around or when she teases her.

They play with the ball, passing it around, for a few hours. They’re having fun, all things considered. Chaeyoung doesn’t even say anything rude to Lisa when she misses the ball and laughs a few times.

“I’m hungry,” Jisoo comments after a while.

Everyone has started to either go home for lunch or to the nearby restaurants. 

“I saw a cheap chinese restaurant on the way here,” Jennie says, “let’s go there.”

They get dressed again, apart from Lisa who already is even though her clothes are all wet, and head out of the beach. They first go to the van so Lisa can get changed, and you can guess Chaeyoung had something to say about that.

The restaurant turns out to be really close, closer than Lisa imagined, just two blocks down. It’s a tiny place, and Lisa wonders how the hell did Jennie even see it. She must be on the lookout for cheap places.

They take off their shoes at the entrance, then sit on the floor at one of the tables. After a while a waiter comes to ask them their orders. They just order some rice to share.

Lisa is hungry, but she knows that they live on limited money, so she can’t complain.

“This almost feels like a home cooked meal!” Jisoo exclaims when it arrives.

“What? Plain rice?” Chaeyoung laughs.

“Yeah, because it’s like.. warm,” Jisoo insists, “finally something better than snacks and cold, convenience store food.”

“What did you even eat at home if you consider this home cooked?” Lisa joins in.

Everyone turns serious and Lisa sees Jennie and Chaeyoung avoiding Jisoo’s eyes.

“I didn’t eat at home,” Jisoo answers, in a serious tone.

“What do you mean you didn’t eat at home?” Lisa asks, “were you always out or something?”

“Lisa, leave it,” Jennie tells her, and Lisa shuts up.

They don’t talk for the rest of the meal.

After lunch, they go back to the beach. They wanted to get in the water again, but Lisa stopped them and told them it was better to wait for a few hours after eating, so they lay down on the sand and enjoy the sun.

“I’m going in,” Jennie announces after a while.

“I’m coming with you,” Chaeyoung adds immediately.

Jennie turns to look at Lisa with a questioning gaze, but Lisa just shakes her head. Jennie and Chaeyoung get in their underwear again and leave.

“Jisoo..” Lisa whispers, “Did I say something that upset you?”

“No, well, yes,” Jisoo says, “but you didn’t do it on purpose, so it’s fine.”

“It’s not fine,” Lisa shakes her head, “I’m sorry.”

“I know you are,” Jisoo smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes, “don’t worry about it. I just don’t like talking about my past and family, that’s all.”

“Okay..” Lisa says, deciding not to ask further.

“Come on,” Jisoo laughs after a while, “get that sad puppy look off your face, I told you it’s fine.”

Lisa smiles, “If you say so..”

“Let’s go find those two,” Jisoo says, standing up.

Lisa follows her into the water and it doesn’t take them long to find Jennie and Chaeyoung who are floating in the water, quietly chatting.

Jisoo throws herself on Chaeyoung, making her go down, and bursts out laughing. Chaeyoung emerges, all wet, and sputters.

“I fucking hate you,” she says, but there’s a smile on her face.

Jisoo just laughs, “You love me~”

“Whatever,” Chaeyoung smiles.

They spend the rest of the afternoon in the water, and when it turns dark and it’s time to go back they’re all wrinkled.

They leave the free beach and sneak into an establishment to make use of its free showers. They quickly shower to shrug off all the sand and sea water and they almsot get caught when they run away.

“So,” Jennie starts as they’re walking back to the van, “Chae and I were talking about the money, and we think that it’s best if we sleep in the van tonight.”

“Sure,” Jisoo shrugs.

“How are we even going to fit in the van?” Lisa asks.

“We wil, princess, don’t worry,” Jennie winks at her and Lisa, as usual, begins blushing.

When they enter the van they quickly get changed into new clothes.

“What’s for today’s dinner?” Jisoo asks, as she takes a sip of the last bottle of soju.

“We were thinking convenience store food,” Chaeyoung says, “we really gotta save our money.”

“I took some money with me,” Lisa confesses.

“How much?” Chaeyoung asks, turning to look at her and Lisa shivers under the cold gaze.

“Just 130,000 won,” Lisa shrugs, offering them to her.

Chaeyoung takes them and adds them to their money, “It’s still better than nothing. This would last for three nights in a motel. Good job, newbie.”

Lisa remains stunned at the other’s words, because for once Chaeyoung isn’t complaining about her or teasing her.

“Thank you,” Lisa smiles.

“Don’t get used to it,” Chaeyoung shrugs.

But for Lisa, it’s enough for now.

 

They head to the convenience store near the motel again and grab some packets or ramen. Jisoo, as always, adds to the mixture a few bottles of soju, and Lisa sees Chaeyoung steal some cigarettes.

They go to the area where they can boil the water, and wait for it to be ready. When it is, they put the ramen in it and wait for a few minutes. They go to sit at one of the tables outside.

“This is so good!” Jisoo exclaims, bringing a forkful of noodles to her mouth.

Jennie hums in agreement.

“So, I was thinking we could go back to the beach for a while,” Chaeyoung intervenes.

“Sure,” Jennie shrugs, “it’s not like we’ve got something better to do.”

When they’re done eating, Jennie lights up a cigarette as they head back to the beach.

The view of the moon reflecting in the sea is breathtaking, and Lisa wishes she had her phone with her to take some pictures, even though they wouldn’t capture the actual beauty.

“This is nice,” Jennie comments, her feets in the cold water, staring straight ahead of her.

“It is,” Lisa agrees.

They stay for a few more hours, talking about some funny things that happened that day and laughing about it. When Jisoo begins to yawn, they decide to head back to the van.

They settle on the floor, their bags under their heads as pillows, and Jennie takes two blankets from out of her bag and places them on top of them. Chaeyoung settles on the left side, Jennie next to her, then Lisa and finally Jisoo.

Lisa grabs her phone from her bag and sees that it’s still a bit charged. She turns it on and finds a message from her brother, asking her if he got there okay. Lisa answers that she did, and finds herself feeling guilty for lying to him.

“Texting your boyfriend?” Jennie whispers at her side.

Lisa, surprised, drops her phone straight onto her face and Jennie bursts out laughing.

“You okay, princess?” Jennie laughs.

Lisa nods, blushing from the embarrassment, and takes her phone back in hand, “It’s just my brother. I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“That’s good to know,” Jennie smirks.

Lisa wants to ask why it is, but she doesn’t have the courage to.

“Will you two please shut up?” Chaeyoung sighs, turning around, “some of us are trying to sleep here.”

“I don’t know about you,” Jisoo comments, “but I was quite enjoying the flirting. Please, do go on.”

“Shut up,” Jennie laughs, and Lisa can see a bit of red on her cheeks. It’s weird to see Jennie blushing, because usually is Lisa the one to do so.

Jennie looks breathtaking in the light of the moon, Lisa notices, her expression looks calm and serene, like for once she doesn’t have the weight of the world on her shoulders, and she even looks a bit younger and more carefree.

“Will you please stop staring at me?” Jennie smirks, opening her eyes.

Lisa says nothing and turns to the other side, giving her back to Jennie.

“I told you everyone falls in Jen’s trap sooner or later,” Jisoo reminds her.

“Shut up,” Lisa murmurs, “good night.”

Jisoo snickers, takes a sip out of the soju bottle, then falls straight asleep.

After a while, sleep finds Lisa as well.

 

The morning after, Lisa wakes up feeling warm. She looks down and finds that she doesn’t have the blanket on her anymore, so where is this warmth coming from?

As she looks down, she notices something. There is a pair of arms around her waist. And her arms are around someone’s shoulders. And she’s resting her head on someone’s chest.

She looks up, to see Jennie smirking at her.

“Had a good night of sleep, princess?” Jennie asks.

Lisa detaches herself immediately from her, and she notices that Jisoo and Chaeyoung aren’t in the van. It’s just her and Jennie and for some reason she feels intimidated.

“I slept well,” Lisa nods, getting up and starting to stretch.

“I would hope so,” Jennie laughs, “since you thought it was a good idea to cling into me in the middle of the night.”

“I’m sorry,” Lisa murmurs.

“Don’t worry,” Jennie smirks, “I liked it.”

Lisa can feel her cheeks heating up, and she remains silent as she keeps stretching. Jennie lights up a cigarette.

“Where are the others?” she asks when she’s done.

“I don’t know,” Jennie shrugs, “they were gone when I woke up.”

“Aren’t you worried?” Lisa asks, noticing her casual tone.

“They can take care of themselves,” Jennie explains, “and we have a rule: if someone leaves and doesn’t come back in three hours, we go away without them.”

“That’s.. harsh,” Lisa comments.

“Not really,” Jennie shrugs, “we decided it together. They know it, so they will come back soon. Unless they decided to give up on the adventure.”

As if Jennie called them, Chaeyoung and Jisoo enter the van with bags in their hands and laughing about something.

“Brekfast is here!” Jisoo announces. She seems more cheerful than usual, and Lisa wonders if she has already started drinking. Lisa wouldn’t put it past her to do so.

“Oh, you’re the best!” Jennie exclaims, “I was starving.”

“It’s nothing to be excited about,” Chaeyoung intervenes, “we found a Mcdonald’s down the road and thought: why not?”

Jisoo takes two toasts from the bag and throws them to Lisa and Jennie, as her and Chaeyoung start eating theirs.

“It is something to be excited about,” Jennie rebuts, “I haven’t had Mcdonald’s in forever!”

“Whatever,” Chaeyoung says, throwing away the bag.

They start eating and finishe the toasts quickly, and Jisoo takes a coke out of the bag and passes it around.

“Are we going back on the road today?” Lisa asks.

“Yes,” Jennie replies, “our next stop is Suwon.”

“What’s in Sunwon?” Lisa wonders.

Jennie shrugs, “I guess we’ll find out when we arrive.”

 

The drive to Suwon isn’t long, just a little over two hours. Jennie drives again, it seems like she’ll be the one doing the driving for the whole adventure, and they all happily sing along to the radio on their way there.

“Let’s split up and explore the city,” Chaeyoung suggests, “we’ll meet here for dinner.”

Everyone nods, they split the money and everyone goes towards a different direction.

It doesn’t take Lisa long to realise she’s kind of lost, so she enters a restaurant and asks for information about the city and local tourist spots.

The kind owner tells her that Suwon is the last walled city of Korea, and that the ancient walls can still be seen and that are quite visited by tourists. Also, that there’s nothing else, apart from all of the universities.

Lisa goes to admire the walls, takes some pictures with her phone and just roams around until it’s lunch time.

For lunch she enters a korean restaurant and orders a kimchi jiggae, the cheapest option on the menu. She eats in silence, checking her social media on her phone.

She answers her brother’s messages, asking her if she’s arrived in Busan safely, and other few messages from Sejeong.

When she’s done eating, she starts going back to the direction of the van, not wanting to get lost and make the others wait for her, god knows what Chaeyoung would say.

On her way back, she bumps into Jisoo, in a park in front of Sungkyunkwan University. She seems in deep thoughts, and she doesn’t seem to have noticed Lisa.

Lisa approaches her quietly, then suddenly appears in front of her, making a loud noise.

“Gosh!” Jisoo yells, “you startled me!”

“That was my plan,” Lisa laughs.

“You’re such an idiot,” Jisoo exclaims, but she’s laughing.

“So, what did you do today?” Lisa asks as she settles down on the grass.

Jisoo follows her, “I went around for universities.”

“That must have been interesting,” Lisa comments.

“It reminds me of my uni days..” Jisoo sighs.

“You went to uni?” Lisa asks.

Jisoo nods, “For just a semester, then things happened and I dropped out.”

Lisa nods, taking in all the new information. She didn’t expect this, but then again, Jisoo is older than her, so it makes sense.

“What happened?” Lisa asks.

Jisoo shrugs, “Just.. things.”

So Jisoo doesn’t trust her yet, it’s fine, they’ve known each other for only a short time, it’s fine, Lisa says to herself, but she wishes she could be more of support to the others, because all of them have the eyes of people who have been through something.

They spend the rest of the afternoon chatting in the park, until it begins to turn dark.

“Let’s go back, before those two drive away without us,” Jisoo says, standing up.

They quietly make their way back to the van, where Chaeyoung and Jennie are already waiting for them.

“You sure took your sweet time,” Chaeyoung snarks.

“Shut up, we didn’t even take that long,” Jisoo comments.

“Let’s go to dinner, come on,” Jennie sighs, shutting them up.

They head to a nearby restaurant, and have dinner there. During dinner, they talk about what they did during the day: Jennie just roamed around and Chaeyoung found a way to make some money, but she doesn’t say how.

Their money now amounts to 500,000 won, and Lisa figures they could make it to the end of the trip, especially if Chaeyoung keeps making money, whatever her way to do it is.

When they go back to the van, they get their duffel bags ready and head to the nearest motel. Just like last time, they get a double room and the couples are still the same.

Jisoo and Chaeyoung go grab some alcohol at the nearest convenience store, and Lisa and Jennie remain alone in the room.

Jennie throws herself on the bed, “I’m so tired,” she laments.

“Did you walk a lot today?” Lisa asks, turning around on her bed to stare at her.

Jennie nods, “I didn’t stop, not even to eat.”

“Jennie!” Lisa exclaims, ”you’ve got to eat, otherwise you won’t have the strength to go through this adventure!”

Jennie smiles, “Okay, I will.”

“I don’t trust you,” Lisa shakes her head, “we’re having lunch together tomorrow.”

“Okay, princess,” Jennie snorts, “your every word is my command.”

“Shut up,” Lisa laughs.

Then Jennie turns serious, “You’re not having second thoughts about this, are you?”

Lisa shakes her head, “Why do you keep asking me that? I’m fine.”

“It’s just that..” Jennie sighs, “this life doesn’t seem fit for you, you deserve better than being on the road with three fucked up strangers.”

“You don’t know what I deserve,” Lisa replies, “and you three don’t even feel like strangers anymore. And you’re not that fucked up.”

“If only you knew..” Jennie sighs.

“Then tell me!” Lisa exclaims.

“It isn’t that easy,” Jennie shakes her head, “but I wish I could tell you.”

“Just.. what happened to you? And to Jisoo and Chaeyoung? Why are you like this? Where are your families?” Lisa asks.

“I advice you to not talk about family with us around,” Jennie says, “it is a sensitive topic here.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Lisa promises.

Chaeyoung and Jisoo burst into the room, laughing out loud.

“What happened?” Jennie asks.

Jisoo manages to stop laughing for a second, “Chae stole these bottles,” she says, holding two soju bottles in her hands, “and we got caught, so we had to run all the way here.”

“Chae!” Jennie exclaims, “I thought we decided to stop stealing things?”

Chaeyoung shrugs and throws a bag of chips to Jennie, “Whatever.”

“Oh, it’s my favourite!” Jennie says happily, munching on the chips.

“For you, newbie,” Chaeyoung says, throwing Lisa a packet of Pockys, “you ate them last time so I figured you liked them.”

“I do,” Lisa smiles, “thank you.”

Lisa is really touched by the other’s actions. Chaeyoung looks like she doesn’t care about others, but Lisa has noticed the soft way she treats Jennie and Jisoo sometimes, and how is now apparently starting to treat her, too.

 

They spend the next few days in Suwon, enjoying the city and what it has to offer, which i is not much, but they still manage to find something to do.

Before leaving the city, they go to a mall where Chaeyoung steals presents for all of them: a top for Jennie, some new shorts for Jisoo and a necklace for Lisa. Needless to say, they’re all really moved, even if Jennie scolds her again for stealing.

Their next stop is Songtan.

Jennie drives, as usual, and they reach their destination in a few hours. They spend the drive singing along to the radio again, and Lisa finds that all of them have really nice voices.

Chaeyoung has an unique timbre when she sings, and she can reach high notes easily, same as Jennie, whose voice is more loud and mature sounding, while Jisoo’s voice is more on the husky side of the spectrum.

“When I was little I wanted to be an idol,” Jisoo snorts.

“You could be one,” Lisa smiles at her, “you’ve got the talents.. and the looks.”

Jisoo laughs, “I can’t dance for shit.”

“You could learn,” Lisa offers.

“I’m not the clean type, if they found out about my past I’d be ruined,” Jisoo shrugs, “It’s fine.. it was just a stupid dream I had as a kid. I would dance around in front of the TV, watching music shows, when my parents were out, couldn’t risk being caught by them.”

Lisa is about to ask her why, but then she remembers Jennie’s words about how family is off-topic on the van, so she refrains. Just what happened to these girls?

They head to the motel, which is nicer than the last one, and settle on the beds to rest for a while. Jisoo lights up a cigarette.

“I didn’t know you smoked,” Lisa says.

“I don’t smoke cigarettes, that shit’s nasty,” Jisoo explains.

“Then what are you smoking?” Lisa asks, “Is that not a cigarette?”

The girls burst out laughing at her innocence.

“This is a blunt,” Jisoo says, bluntly.

“Uh?”

“It’s weed,” Chaeyoung butts in, exasperated.

“Oh!” Lisa exclaims, “you can’t smoke that in here! What if we get caught?”

Jisoo shrugs, “Let’s just open the windows and no one will notice.”

Lisa stands up immediately and spreads the windows open.

“Do you wanna try it?” Jisoo asks, passing it to Chaeyoung who then gives it to Jennie.

“No,” Jennie intervenes, “she’s not trying that.”

“Boo-hoo,” Jisoo comments, “party-pooper.”

“Do it,” Chaeyoung laughs, “that’s some shit I wanna see.”

“I said no,” Jennie repeats, “and that’s final.”

Lisa gets it, she knows that Jennie just wants to protect her innocence or whatever, but it’s getting on her nerves. She’s not a kid! And everyone has tried weed in their lives, it will be fine.

“I’ll try it!” Lisa says, convinced.

“Lisa,” Jennie sighs, “it’s better if you don’t.”

“What are you, her mom?” Jisoo scoffs, “let her try, she said she wants to, it’s consensual.”

Jennie sighs, defeated, and Jisoo and Chaeyoung cheer.

Lisa takes the blunt between her pointing and middle fingers, puts it close to her mouth and inhales deeply. And.. she bursts out coughing.

“This is disgusting!” she exclaims between coughs.

“Try it again,” Jisoo encourages her.

Lisa shakes her head, “I don’t know if I want it.”

“Come on, do it, the fun begins later,” Chaeyoung adds.

“It’s fine if you don’t want to,” Jennie intervenes.

Lisa takes another hit, and then another and another. She finally stops coughing, but she doesn’t feel any different.

“Why do people smoke this anyway?” Lisa asks, passing the blunt to Jisoo, “is it supposed to make you feel anything?”

“Just wait..” Chaeyoung chuckles.

Lisa waits patiently, and then, when Jennie puts off the blunt she begins to feel it. Her heart starts beating faster, kind of like it does whenever she’s too close to Jennie, and all of she can think of is the beat of her heart, echoing in her mind.

She begins to find funny everything the other girls say, even if it’s just asking her if she’s okay. She starts off chuckling, which then evolves in blown out laughter.

“Lisa?” Jennie asks, “how do you feel?”

“I’m fine, fine,” Lisa replies.

She tries standing up to prove Jennie that she’s absolutely fine, but she can’t feel her legs and her tongue feels heavy.

“Drink,” she just says.

Chaeyoung throws a water bottle at her, but Lisa doesn’t catch it and it falls on the floor. Jisoo passes her the bottle of soju she’s drinking from.

“Don’t mix it with alcohol,” Jennie yells, but it’s too late.

Lisa takes a big gulp and starts drinking it, she’s never drunk alcohol before, but she just feels so thirsty that anything will do.

“Gosh, we’re destroying her!” Jennie exclaims.

“Let her live, Jen,” Chaeyoung says.

Lisa is about to say something, when her eyelids start feeling heavy, so she closes her eyes, resting with her back to the wall. She falls asleep like that.

 

When Lisa wakes up, it’s because she feels an urge. The urge to puke.

She runs to the bathroom with her hands covering her mouth, and kneels down in front of the toilet. 

Someone runs to her side immediately, holding her hair and caressing her back.

“Get it all out, come on,” Jennie says, “god, I told them it was a bad idea.”

When Lisa is finally done, she raises her head and Jennie hands her a water bottle. Lisa drinks it all in one shot.

“What time is it?” Lisa asks.

“It’s a little past five,” Jennie replies, “in the morning.”

Lisa turns to look at Jennie, “Has anyone ever told you that you’re very pretty?”

“Gosh,” Jennie sighs, “you’re still high.”

“Jennie is so pretty,” Lisa repeats, giggling.

“What will I do with you?” Jennie sighs, carding her fingers through her hair.

Lisa cups Jennie’s face with her hands and brings it closer, she closes her eyes and leans in.

But Jennie moves away, sighing, “You’re high and possibly drunk, you don’t know what you’re doing. Fuck, you won’t even remember it tomorrow morning.”

“But Jennie..” Lisa pouts.

“Go back to sleep, come on,” Jennie says, helping her stand up and dragging her back to bed. She kindly tucks her in, leaves a kiss on her forehead, and goes back to sit on the windowsill, smoking yet another cigarette.

 

The morning after, Lisa wakes up feeling fine, with just a disgusting taste in her mouth.

“How are you feeling?” Jisoo whispers to her.

“I feel like I have a dead animal in my mouth,” Lisa replies.

“That must be the puking,” Jisoo says.

“I puked?” Lisa asks.

“Yes, in the middle of the night, Jennie scolded us all this morning, harshly,” Jisoo informs her.

“I don’t remember that..” Lisa says.

“It’s fine,” Jisoo shrugs, “Jennie said that you were still out of it.”

“I’m sorry.. for troubling her,” Lisa admits.

“Then why are you telling me?” Jisoo laughs, “tell her that.”

“Where is Jennie?” Lisa asks.

“Her and Chae went to pick up some breakfast,” Jisoo explains.

Jennie and Chaeyoung come back not long after, bringing some convenience store kimbap with them. Lisa eats it all immediately, finding out that she was starving.

While they’re getting ready to go out and explore, Lisa tries to talk to Jennie to thank her for last night, but the other seems always too busy.

One moment she’s changing her clothes, but when Lisa walks closer to her she disappears in the bathroom, and this happens a few times.

Maybe Jennie got really annoyed at her yesterday night? Or did Lisa say something she shouldn’t have? Lisa has no idea.

“Is Jennie mad at me?” Lisa asks Jisoo, once they’re outside and wandering around.

Chaeyoung and Jennie are a few steps ahead of them, swinging their conjoined hands back and forth, and Lisa for some reason wishes her and Jennie had the relationship Chaeyoung has with Jennie. The two seem comfortable with each other, know all about each other and are pretty touchy-feely.

Lisa sighs, wondering again what she did wrong. Her and Jennie were almost about to become close, and she just had to ruin it.

The rest of the days in Songtan go in similar fashion, them going around the city and Jennie avoiding Lisa, and Lisa still not figuring out what she did wrong. Even Chaeyoung seems to feel for her, for she sometimes looks at Lisa and smiles at her sympathetically.

They leave Songtan a few days later. During their stay nothing major happens, Jisoo keeps drinking, even more than usual, and a Chaeyoung keeps stealing things and disappearing and coming back with money. Their money now amounts to 530,000 won, and Lisa feels really grateful to Chaeyoung for all her hard work, whatever she does.

Their next stop is Ansong. The drive there is somber and Lisa can feel in her bones that something is about to happen. As soon as they arrive, thick rain starts falling on her their heads, making them completely wet.

The general mood is down, Jennie is still avoiding Lisa, Chaeyoung is more silent than usual and limps as she walks for whatever reason and even Jisoo isn’t in the mood to joke around as she always does. Maybe it’s because she hasn’t had her daily dose of alcohol yet.

The motel room they book has two rooms connected with a door and a bathroom in each. The bathroom has actual baths and not showers, which is a nice change, and Lisa takes her chance to have a warm bath.

She fills the tub to the brim with hot water and soaks in it for a few hours, her playlist playing from her phone. She faintly hears Jennie and Chaeyoung yelling something about them going out, but she pays no mind to it.

She finally feels clean and cleansed through and through, like all of the stress from the adventure, all the lies she told to her family and friends and how much it weights on her, aren’t there anymore. She’s never been this calm and relaxed.

She heads out of the bathroom to her and Jisoo’s room and is surprised to not find the other there. She gets dressed with long pants since it’s cold outside and wears her jacket. She runs to the convenience store in front of the motel and buys an umbrella and a few snacks.

When she walks back into the room, she settles on the bed, catching up on her favourite drama on her phone and eating the snacks she bought.

“Jisoo?” she yells after a while, wanting to know if the other is in the room or not.

“I’m taking a bath!” Jisoo yells back.

Her voice comes from the bathroom in Jennie and Chaeyoung’s room, and Lisa wonders how long she’s been in the bath already.

Lisa faintly notices that it’s getting dark, and Chaeyoung and Jennie still aren’t back. And Jisoo is still in the bathroom. Lisa wonders if she’s fallen asleep in the bath and decides to go check on her.

She knocks on the door, “Jisoo? You awake?”

When no answer comes back, Lisa starts worrying. She tries to open the door but it’s locked from the inside.

“Jisoo? Open the door, it’s me!” she yells.

Lisa waits for a few minutes, but nothing happens. She starts panicking immediately, if Jisoo was sleeping, she would have woken up from all the ruckus she has caused. Why isn’t Jisoo opening the door or at least letting her know that she’s alive?

“Jisoo!” 

Lisa goes to the entrance and asks the receptionist for a copy of the bathroom key. She goes back to the room and opens it with shaking hands.

Jisoo is slouched back in the bathtub. She looks pale and her eyes are closed. Lisa runs to her side and checks her temperature. She’s freezing. Looking at her closely, Lisa notices that she’s shaking.

“Jisoo?” Lisa asks, frozen on the spot.

“When will it stop?” Jisoo mumbles.

“What?” Lisa asks, “what are you talking about?”

“When will everything stop?” Jisoo slurs, “all this suffering.”

Now Lisa is scared. There are tears falling from Jisoo’s eyes, they’re the only warm things about her.

“Jisoo?” she asks, “what.. you.. I don’t..”

Jisoo doesn’t reply and she falls slack. Lisa checks her pulse. It’s weak. Lisa grabs her freezing body and drags her out of the cold water. 

She takes them to Jennie and Chaeyoung’s bed and leaves her there. She grabs the hairdryer from Jennie’s bag and starts pointing it at Jisoo.

She leaves the hairdryer on the bed and goes to grab the towels. She pats Jisoo’s body in every part, still pointing the hairdryer at her.

She goes back to her and Jisoo’s room and opens Jisoo’s duffel bag on the bed. She notices that Jisoo doesn’t only have clothes for the summer as she goes, but she also has winter clothes. She doesn’t stop to wonder why, instead she grabs a pair of sweatpants and a sweater and goes back to Jisoo and dresses her up.

She dries her hair, softly carding her fingers through it, and then points the hairdryer back on her body. 

Jisoo wakes up a few minutes later. Lisa has never felt so relieved, there are tears in her eyes.

“Jisoo?” Lisa whispers, “can you hear me?”

Jisoo nods slowly, “What happened? Did I die?”

Lisa shakes her head, “You didn’t. You’re alive, Jisoo.”

Jisoo sighs, “Did you save me?”

Lisa nods.

“Why did you do that?” Jisoo whispers, “I just wanted everything.. to stop.”

“What everything?” Lisa asks, “Jisoo.. did you do it in purpose?”

“What does it look like?” Jisoo laughs bitterly.

“Why would you do that?” Lisa asks.

Jisoo looks up at her from where she’s resting with her head on Lisa’s lap, “I couldn’t do it anymore.. not even the alcohol helped forget anymore..”

“What? Forget what?” Lisa asks.

Jisoo closes her eyes, and tears begin flowing down her face, “I have nightmares every night and I can’t sleep, but they’re not nightmares, they’re memories.”

“Just what happened to you?” Lisa wonders, all choked up, tears in her eyes as well.

“When I was young..” Jisoo starts, “my father hated me, ever since I was born, because my mother died when she gave birth to me. He would beat me up, and sometimes he.. sometimes he thought I was her and he would just..”

Lisa understands the implications, “Oh my god..”

“..yeah,” Jisoo agrees, “he would get his way with me and I couldn’t fight back! I was barely a child, so I ran away from home.”

Jisoo sniffs and Lisa waits patiently for her to continue.

“I ran away from home and started living in the streets,” Jisoo continues, “I stole some money from the old bastard and kept going to school, I even went to university. I had started living with a few roommates and even found a job! But then the nightmares started, so I went to find comfort in alcohol. That’s when Jennie found me. But now even that isn’t enough anymore.”

Lisa moves to hug Jisoo, she holds her tight, pressing Jisoo’s head to her chest and letting her cry everything out.

“Why did you save me?” Jisoo manages to say between the sobs, “I don’t want to live.”

“I had to save you,” Lisa whispers back, “It doesn’t matter what you say to me, I know that I did the right thing.”

“But now it doesn’t stop hurting,” Jisoo sobs, “Lisa, why did he hate me so much? Why have I ever done to him?”

“Jisoo, he’s sick, mental,” Lisa replies, “a person who does that to his own children is just sick. You did nothing wrong. It’s not your fault. None of this is.”

“Then why did this all happen to me?” Jisoo sobs, “I’m so jealous of you! You seem like you have no problems.”

“I don’t,” Lisa replies honestly, “my biggest problems are the fear of going to uni and living alone, they’re nothing compared to yours.”

“Don’t compare them, every problem is valid,” Jisoo laughs, “I bet that even Chae is jealous of you, that’s why she treats you like that. You’re so pure.. untainted.”

“Jisoo..” Lisa sighs, “you’re not tainted. Someone else’s actions inflicted to you don’t define you. You just have to be strong.”

“But it’s so hard!” Jisoo exclaims, “I can’t stop thinking about how he would just grab me and.. I just feel so dirty, I wanted to clean myself.”

“You’re not!” Lisa sobs, “you’re not dirty! You did nothing wrong, fuck, you were only a child.”

“I don’t know what to do..” Jisoo confesses.

“Have you tried therapy?” Lisa asks.

“It costs too much,” Jisoo sighs.

“Talking to someone?” Lisa tries.

“Jen and Chae know,” Jisoo confesses, “I feel better every time I talk about it.”

“Have you tried writing down your thought? Drawing?” Lisa asks.

Jisoo shakes her head.

“Then try it, I’ll buy you a diary,” Lisa promises, “but please, promise me you will never try anything like this again. I’ll show you a thousand of reasons to live, just promise me.”

Jisoo raises her head to look at her in the eyes, “I promise.”

“And stop with the alcohol as well,” Lisa says, “I know it will not be easy, since you’re basically addicted, but I will help you, I promise!”

Jisoo smiles, “I promise.”

They fall asleep in each other’s arms, and that night, Jisoo doesn’t have nightmares.

 

“Wake up! Seriously, did you forget which one is your bed?”

When Lisa wakes up, she doesn’t expect it to be because of Chaeyoung’s yelling.

“Shut up,” Lisa mumbles, “Jisoo had a bad day.”

Chaeyoung’s expression changes immediately to worried, “How bad?”

“Very bad,” Lisa just answers.

“Did she tell you about..?” Chaeyoung asks.

Lisa nods.

“Oh,” Chaeyoung exclaims, “then it’s fine. Go back to sleep.”

Thankfully, Jisoo hasn’t woken up yet, she’s still peacefully sleeping in Lisa’s arms.

“What time is it?” Lisa asks.

“It’s a little past two,” Chaeyoung replies, “in the morning.”

“Where’s Jennie?” Lisa wonders.

“I’m here,” Jennie answers, and Lisa turns around and sees her.

Chaeyoung and Jennie sit at the edge of the bed.

“What did you guys do today?” Lisa asks them.

“We just wandered around a bit,” Chaeyoung shrugs, “there’s nothing much to do, or to see.”

They keep talking softly, in order to not wake Jisoo up, for a while, until Lisa realises Jennie and Chaeyoung have both fallen asleep at the edge of the bed. She untangles herself from Jisoo, picks Chaeyoung up and settles her on Jisoo’s left side. Then she does the same thing with Jennie and places her on her right side. Finally, she settles back between Jennie and Jisoo and goes back to sleep.

 

The morning after, they all wake up to Jisoo’s singing happily.

“Someone’s in a good mood,” Jennie comments mid-yawn.

“Did someone give her alcohol?” Chaeyoung asks.

“She promised me she wouldn’t drink anymore,” Lisa informs them.

“Oh!” Jennie exclaims, “that’s unexpected. Jisoo without alcohol? I’ve never thought I’d see the day.”

“Just what happened yesterday while we were out?” Chaeyoung wonders.

“Jisoo had.. a bit of a crisis,” Lisa explains, without going into details because she feels that what happened should just stay between her and Jisoo, “but we had a little talk afterwards and everything seems okay, now.”

“Breakfast’s ready!” Jisoo yells.

They all join her in the other room, where Jisoo, all dressed up, is fixing breakfast on the table by the window. The table is all set up and there are two hamburgers on it and two sides of fried fries.

Jisoo is cutting the hamburgers in a half and placing them on opened napkins. 

“Where did you buy all of this?” Jennie asks.

“There’s a diner at the corner of the street, near the park,” Jisoo replies, “I figured we could have a lot of breakfast so we won’t eat lunch.”

“That’s good,” Chaeyoung nods, biting on her half of the hamburger, “we really need to save up.”

“Well, if you keep working like you’ve been doing, we don’t really need to save up that much,” Lisa points out.  
Chaeyoung’s face darkens, “You’re right.”  
Lisa bites on a fry, and turns to look at her, “What do you do, anyways?”  
“It’s none of your business,” Chaeyoung glares at her, then turns to look at Jennie, “this city is so fucking boring, what’s our next stop?”  
“Songwan,” Jennie replies as she’s done chewing, “do you want to leave today?”  
Chaeyoung nods, and Jennie cleans her hands on her shorts, “Let’s go, then.”  
They each pack their bags, and head outside of the motel after talking briefly with the receptionist, thanking her for her hard work.  
“I won’t miss this place,” Jisoo says, serious, as they enter the van.  
Lisa caresses her back and smiles at her, “Me neither.”  
“Fuck Ansong,” Jisoo whispers.  
Lisa bursts out laughing, “Yeah, fuck Ansong.”  
“You’re getting naughtier everyday,” Jisoo smirks, “first smoking, now cursing, we’re totally turning you into a new person.”  
Lisa shrugs, “I don’t mind it, I swear sometimes and I smoked once and will never do it again. It was disgusting.”  
Jisoo laughs, and they get seated on their seats, staring at Jennie and Chaeyoung’s backs from where they are sitting in the driver and passenger seats.  
The drive isn’t too long, just a little over two hours, and during it they all sing along to the radio happily. It’s become their thing now, to sing while Jennie drives, and Lisa hopes they won’t break the tradition.  
When they arrive in Songwan, they immediately seek out a motel and they find one after looking for at least thirty minutes. They head inside of it and book a double room, as always, and go to leave their stuff.  
They decide to go divided once again to explore the city: Jennie with Chaeyoung and Lisa with Jisoo.  
As they walk, Lisa starts to notice that Jisoo’s hands are shaking.  
“Are you cold?” Lisa asks.  
Jisoo shakes her head.  
“Then why are you shaking?” Lisa wonders.  
“It’s the alcohol withdrawal,” Jisoo explains, “I puked this morning.”  
“What else do you feel?” Lisa asks, now concerned.  
“I feel this insane urge to drink,” Jisoo confesses, “my mind is completely focused on it and my stomach hurts.”  
“I’m sorry..” Lisa mumbles.  
Jisoo smiles, “It’s not your fault.”  
During the rest of the day Jisoo gets worse. She has trouble breathing and the urge to drink multiplies.  
Lisa tries to find ways to distract her, and Jisoo just smiles at her, obviously appreciating the effort, but she doesn’t seem like the usual Jisoo: she isn’t cracking jokes and smiling brightly.  
Lisa remembers reading somewhere that the first twenty four hours are the worst, then it gets better. She just hopes that that’s the case, she doesn’t want Jisoo to suffer like this.  
Their time in Songwan passes like this: Jisoo puking after eating, trembling and feeling generally down. The others notice it as well, and when they confront Lisa about it, she informs them of what’s going on.  
During their time alone, Lisa goes out to finally buy Jisoo that diary she promised her. Jisoo seems surprised by the act, says she didn’t think she would actually do it, has learned the hard way to not believe in promises.  
Jisoo gets attached to the diary immediately, and by their last day in the city, she has already consumed a quarter of it, writing down her thoughts or drawing them. She’s always scribbling down something, when Lisa looks at her.  
When they leave again, they finally leave the Gyonggi province and enter South Chungchong, stopping in Chonan.

When they arrive in the city, it’s raining. The skies are dark and the general atmosphere is down, with Jisoo still feeling bad, but at least she’s stopped puking and she only trembles from time to time.

They do their best to try and cheer her up, but it doesn’t quite work, at least not as much as they want it to. 

Jisoo has also started to get nightmares again, but she said that sleeping next to someone helps, so her and Lisa cuddle to sleep almost every night.

“This has to stop,” Chaeyoung comments when they’re finally in the motel.

“What?” Jennie asks, munching on some chips.

“We’re on this adventure to have fun!” Chaeyoung explains, “but we’ve been so down the past few days, I think we should go out.”

“Out where?” Jennie asks, “there’s nothing to do in this fucking city, plus, it’s raining.”

“Let’s go to a club!” Chaeyoung proposes.

“To a club?” Lisa echoes.

“Yes, newbie, did you not hear me?” Chaeyoung snaps, “it’s time to loosen up.”

“But are you sure that going to a club is a good idea?” Lisa asks.

“What’s a better place to lighten up the mood?” Chaeyoung retorts, and well, she isn’t wrong, “Plus, it’s the last day of June, we gotta celebrate one month of Lisa being with us!”

When everyone finally approves, they start getting dressed up in their nicest clothing. 

Jisoo, Chaeyoung and Jennie wear short dresses, paired up with some cheap heels they bought at a market and Lisa, who didn’t bring anything fancy with her, just wears some shorts and a sleeveless shirt.

They find a club not too far from the motel, the music inside is so loud that they can hear it from the street.

“That’s it!” Chaeyoung comments with a smile.

Chaeyoung looks really nice when she smiles, Lisa notices, and she wishes the other would do it more. It makes her look more innocent, and not like she has the weight of the world on her shoulders.

They stick together as they enter the club, holding each other’s hand and going straight to the dance floor. None of them have the intention to drink, and Lisa begins to wonder if going to a place filled with alcohol was a good idea for Jisoo’s sake.

“There’s a guy staring at me,” Chaeyoung informs them, “I’m gonna go talk to him.”

“But you know that you won’t be going home with him tonight,” Jennie points out.

Chaeyoung shrugs, “It’s fun to toy with them.”

“You’re terrible,” Jisoo comments.

Chaeyoung smirks, “Tell me something I don’t know.”

They watch her leave with a determined look in her eyes. Lisa stares at her for a while, at the way she’s pretending to act all shy and coy. Lisa wonders if that’s how you pick up boys.

“Well, I’m going to dance,” Lisa announces.

She hasn’t been dancing for a month now, and she’s starting to feel the urge to do it again. She has been dancing ever since she was little, and her and dance couldn’t really be kept apart from long.

“I’m going to the bar, I feel thirsty,” Jisoo says instead.

“Yeah, I’m going to keep an eye on you,” Jennie tells Jisoo, and follows her to the bar.

Lisa begins by listening to the music: it’s EDM and not what she usually dances in the studio, but she could dance to just anything, so it’s not a problem.

She begins feeling the music inside of her, and then takes it outside. She starts moving her body to the sound, first by simply swaying, then by doing more complicated moves that’s she’s learned over the years.

The songs ends and a R&B song starts playing, and this, this is more up Lisa’s alley. She starts moving her body more sensually, and she just oozes sex appeal. Maybe that’s why a ground begins to gather around her.

And maybe that’s why Jennie, who Lisa can see sitting at the counter, can’t seem to be able to take her eyes off her.

Lisa smirks at her, then tilts her head as if to ask her why she isn’t joining. Jennie doesn’t think twice before making her way to her, leaving Jisoo alone.

Jennie is holding two drinks in her hands, and she offers one to Lisa. Lisa accepts it without even asking what it is, and downs it. Her throat burns for a solid minute, but she just felt so thirsty without even realising that a drink was exactly what she needed.

“Did you leave Jisoo alone?” Lisa asks, never stopping moving as Jennie gets in front of her.

Jennie nods, “It’s fine, she was drinking a coke. Without rum in it.”

“If you say so..” Lisa trails off.

“Let’s just dance,” Jennie says.

Now, Lisa has never danced like this before. She has never even been in a club like this one. But something in her is telling her what to do, so she just listens to it.

She puts her hands on Jennie’s hips, and starts moving against her body. Jennie stiffens completely, and Lisa bursts out laughing.

Lisa puts her leg between Jennie’s and starts grinding their hips together, and after a while Jennie follows her movements.

“Is this how people dance in clubs?” Lisa finds herself asking.

Jennie nods, “Damn, you’re a natural.”

“Why did you come here when I asked you to?” Lisa asks.

“Fuck, you can’t just..” Jennie starts, “you can’t just dance like that, it does things to me. Plus, there were really greasy guys staring at you and it was bothering me.”

“Were you jealous?” Lisa smirks.

Jennie shakes her head, “I ain’t the type to get jealous, no, it was just bothering me.”

“I think you were jealous,” Lisa smiles, “that they could dance with me while you couldn’t. Isn’t this that much better?”

As Lisa asks, she grinds her leg between Jennie’s thighs, and guides Jennie’s arms to intertwine around her neck.

“It.. it is,” Jennie agrees, as she looks like she’s having trouble breathing.

Lisa’s body is now interely guided by her instinct, and her instinct right now is telling her to get even closer to Jennie. Lisa looks at her in the eyes, and moves her head closer, until their foreheads touch.

“I.. I thought you weren’t into girls,” Jennie comments, in a airy voice.

“Change my mind, then,” Lisa smirks.

She doesn’t know where this sudden confidence is coming from, and she honestly doesn’t know if she’s into girls or not, but the only thing she wants right now is for their lips to finally touch.

And they’re almost there, Jennie gets closer and their lips are a breath away, when a yell interrupts them. 

They turn around, to find Chaeyoung running towards them, “You gotta help me.”

“What happened?” Lisa asks, immediately distancing herself from Jennie.

“Jisoo..” Chaeyoung says, but she looks like she’s panicking and having trouble breathing, “Jisoo is..”

Jennie grabs her face between her hands, “Calm down, Chae, tell us what’s going on.”

“Jisoo drank, she’s unconscious!” Chaeyoung manages to yell.

Lisa’s body freezes completely. She’s never felt such panic cursing through her bones. She doesn’t even feel tipsy anymore, for the news have completely sobered her up.

“Where is she?” Jennie asks, near hysterical.

Chaeyoung doesn’t even answer as she drags them outside of the club. Jisoo is laying on the floor, pale skin illuminated by the moonlight and hair creating a halo around her.

“Oh my God,” Lisa curses.

“We gotta call an ambulance,” Jennie sad immediately, crouching in front of Jisoo’s unconscious form and checking her pulse, “it’s still there, but it’s weak.”

“What about the money?” Lisa asks.

“Who fucking cares about the money?” Jennie yells, “fuck, we gotta get her to a hospital right fucking now.”

Chaeyoung is already on it, calling the ambulance from her phone. When they answer she speaks frantically, but manages to give them the answer.

They wait nervously for it to arrive. Jennie is checking Jisoo’s pulse every few seconds, Chaeyoung is biting her nails and Lisa has begun crying silently.

It’s all her fault. If she hadn’t invited Jennie to dance out of her selfish desires, they wouldn’t have ended up in this situation. Jisoo might die and it’s all her fault.

Over the month spent together, Lisa has started to care a lot about Jisoo. Even as the oldest, she never failed to make her smile or laugh. And yes, she was a bit fucked up in the head, with all her alcohol and bad memories, but who wouldn’t be in her situation?

Jisoo treated her like a bigger sister would, always taking care of her and out of the three of them she was the one Lisa spent more time with.

Seeing her the other day in the bath completely changed Lisa’s life forever. And Lisa doesn’t want all of her efforts to be wasted like this. She was doing so well, too.

The sirene takes her back to reality, and she can only stares as Jisoo is carried on the ambulance. 

Jennie moves as if to go with her, but Chaeyoung stops her, “I’m going. This is all your fault anyways.”

Jennie freezes, and Chaeyoung goes away with the ambulance.

“Come on,” Lisa says, shaking her, “we gotta run.”

But Jennie isn’t moving. She’s staring at the ground as tears begin to fill up her eyes.

“Hurry!” Lisa urges her.

Lisa decides to take the matter into her hands, literally, as she grabs Jennie’s arm and drags her with her. They begin running after the ambulance.

After not long, they stop hearing the sirens, so they stop by the first store they find and ask for directions to the nearest hospital. Once they get it, they begin running again.

They run for a long time, and Lisa normally wouldn’t be able to, but she’s so full of adrenaline that she can’t stop.

They finally reach the hospital and don’t stop running as they go ask to the lady behind the counter is there’s any Kim Jisoo in this hospital. There’s always the probability that she was taken to another one.

Fortunately, they’re right, and the lady tells them that Jisoo is undergoing surgery now. They’re going to pump her stomach out, as she is in an alcohol-induced coma.

“Oh fuck,” Jennie swears, “where is she?”

“You can’t go in, right now,” the lady informs them, “go to the waiting room on the second floor.”

Lisa and Jennie walk in silence to the waiting room.

 

After waiting for more than a hour, Lisa realises there’s nothing she hates more than waiting rooms in hospitals. 

There’s an eerie atmosphere and the silence in creepy. People with sad faces are sitting, staring at the ground and not saying anything.

“I’m going to grab a coffee,” Lisa informs Jennie.

Jennie doesn’t answer.

Lisa goes to the vending machine at the end of the corridor, inserts a few coins and gets two cups of coffee. She immediately downs hers, and it’s probably the shittiest coffee she’s ever had, but she doesn’t care.

When she goes back to the waiting room with one coffee still in hand, Jennie is speaking to a doctor. 

“Still nothing,” Jennie informs her as the doctor takes his leave.

Lisa sighs, and hands her her coffee. Jennie thanks her and drinks it all in one go.

“It’s not your fault.. you know that, right?” Lisa tries.

“Of course it’s my fault,” Jennie retorts, “I’m the one who left her alone.”

“We all left her alone,” Lisa points out, “you weren’t the only one supposed to watch her, but we all decided to do other things.”

“Honestly,” Jennie starts, “what the fuck where we even thinking? Going to a place filled with alcohol when she’s still suffering from alcohol withdrawals.”

“We weren’t thinking,” Lisa agrees.

“Fuck,” Jennie curses, “I’m not even religious, but I keep praying for her to be alive.”

Lisa shyly takes hold of her hand, “Let’s pray together.”

 

After another hour of waiting, the same doctor finally comes to them.

“How is she?” Jennie asks, standing up.

“She’s fine,” the doctor smiles, “she’s resting now, but if you want you can go see her, your friend is already there.”

Jennie thanks him and her and Lisa follow him to the room where Jisoo is staying. Apparently, according to the doctor, Chaeyoung made quite a scene when they took Jisoo into the operating room, crying and screaming, and she waited outside for the duration of the operation.

Chaeyoung, as the doctor said, is already inside, sitting on a chair next to Jisoo’s bed.

Lisa and Jennie hurry to Jisoo’s side and Jennie hugs Jisoo’s sleeping form, muttering ‘thank God’ over and over. Lisa, too, sighs in relief.

“You’re gonna wake her up like this,” Chaeyiung whispers, “let her sleep.”

Jennie immediately stands up, “You’re right, sorry.”

“Come with me to grab some snacks,” Chaeyoun orders, and Jennie follows her.

Lisa overhears Chaeyoung apoligising for what she said earlier, and Lisa knows that they’re gonna be fine.

Lisa joins them after a while, giving them enough time to talk it out and when she reaches them, they’re holding hands while waiting for their snacks to come out of the vending machine.

“What do you want?” Chaeyoung asks, but she’s chuckling.

“Some snacks,” Lisa replies, and Chaeyoung gives her some chips.

“I’m so relieved everything went alright in the end,” Jennie comments, “fuck, I even prayed.”

“You?” Chaeyoung bursts out laughing, “who did you even pray to?”

“I don’t know,” Jennie laughs, “everyone.”

They all laugh.

“By the way,” Chaeyoung says, now serious, “what happened the other day? When you said that Jisoo had a crisis?”

Lisa sighs, “She tried to kill herself.”

Chaeyoung and Jennie share a look, not seeming that surprised.

“We think that that’s what happened when she got hit by that car in Oijongbu, too,” Chaeyoung informs her, “I think that she did that on purpose.”

“Do you think she did it on purpose this time too?” Lisa asks, now worried.

Jennie shakes her head, “I don’t think so. I just think she got overwhelmed that she could finally drink again and went a bit overboard.”

Lisa is about to agree, when the same doctor from before walks closer to them, “Your friend is awake.”

The three of them run back into the room. 

“Why the long faces?” Jisoo smiles.

Chaeyoung and Jennie scream, throwing themselves carefully on Jisoo, and hugging her.

Lisa remains at the entrance of the room takes her time to stare at Jisoo, Jisoo who survived, once again reminded of just how strong the older girl is.

Jisoo cracks a joke and Lisa knows it for sure, the worst is over now. They’re gonna be fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> leave kudos and comments!
> 
> follow me on twitter @ jendeukiesss for sneak peeks!


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